BC Liberal Party
Misc. topics
Affordable Housing
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Increase housing supply by working with municipalities to speed up permitting and open new opportunities to housing.
- Expand the Renovation Tax Credit eligibility to those renovating their home to accommodate a secondary suite.
- Raise the threshold of the First Time Home Buyers' Program exemption to $500,000, saving first-time home buyers up to $8,000.
- Invest $700 million in the BC HOME Partnership program to provide mortgage down payment assistance loans to an estimated 42,000 first-time home buyers over the next three years.
Agriculture
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Spur the development of a hops industry in B.C. with a $1 million annual grant towards an incentive program for farmers, contributing to the development of a VQA-like program for made-in-BC craft beer.
- Take further steps to encourage British Columbians to grow and buy locally grown food by doubling the 'Grow Local' program and making it permanent; and increasing the 'Buy Local' program by $1 million starting in 2019.
Budget and Taxes
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Eliminate our operating debt by 2021 - the first time that has occurred since the mid-1970's.
- Commit to another four balanced budgets
- Protect B.C.'s AAA credit rating
- Cut middle class taxes by $1 billion by phasing out MSP, starting with reducing premiums by half for families and individuals with family net income of up to $120,000 per year.
- Freeze all personal income taxes for the next four years.
- Cut the small business tax rate to 2% - the second lowest in Canada.
- Phase out PST on electricity for all businesses.
- Encourage charitable giving with a substantial increase in the value of the tax credit for charitable donations to a maximum value of $500 on the first $1,100 of donations
Childcare
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Work with the federal government on their new plan to expand the number of childcare spaces in British Columbia.
- Increase investment in childcare to $352.5 million.
- Develop a Low Income Families in Transition (LIFT) pilot program that provides temporary assistance to low-income single working parents so they can take time away from their current employment, or reduce their hours without financial penalty, and assist with training, child care, and transit costs while upgrading or acquiring new skills.
Drug Use and Abuse
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Invest $165 million for youth mental health needs and substance abuse issues.
Education
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Continue to expand the open textbook program by committing an additional $10 million over the term.
- Coding for kids in classrooms
- Provide $5 million over the next two years to fund teacher retention programs in rural school districts
- Provide $228 million to fund enrolment growth across the fiscal plan period.
- Invest over $2 billion in capital spending over the next three years for schools.
- Undertake a full educational funding review to ensure rural and fast-growing school districts have the resources they need to educate their students.
Environment and Natural Resources
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Ensure Canada implements its promise for a world-leading marine spill response system, prior to any new operations on our coast.
- Ensure that Kinder Morgan meets its requirements to significantly enhance marine safety.
First Nations
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Support First Nations' involvement in the forest sector
- Improve access to skills training and economic development opportunities
- Help Aboriginal businesses increase their participation in major industrial projects
- Support interested First Nations in seeking the return of their ancestral remains and belongings of cultural significance
- Implement the recommendations coming out of Grand Chief Ed John's report
- Work with Destination BC to expand and promote Aboriginal tourism opportunities.
Health care
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Invest $2.7 billion over the next three years on infrastructure in the health sector.
- New St. Paul's replacement hospital in Vancouver
- Full re-development of Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
- Re-development of Burnaby Hospital in recognition of continued growth in Burnaby and the Fraser Health service delivery area.
- Penticton Regional Hospital redevelopment
- North Island Hospitals Project building 2 new hospitals in Courtney-Comox and Campbell River
- Royal Inland Hospital Patient Tower Project in Kamloops
- R. Baker upgrades in Quesnel
- Complete the emergency department at Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Centre
- Construction of 16 new operating rooms at Jim Pattison Pavilion at VGH
- Work with provincial health authorities and medical credentialing colleges to develop and implement a Ministerial Taskforce on Health Professional Expanded Scope of Practice with a special focus on expanding service access to rural and remote communities.
- Work with provincial medical credentialing colleges to safely and responsibly expand the scope of practice of nurse practitioners in British Columbia, thereby reducing pressure on doctors, registered nurses and other in-demand professions.
- Work with the Doctors of BC and BC Health Authorities to allow Nurse Practitioners in areas underserved by General Practitioners, access to MSP fee codes for treatment in addition to referral services.
- Explore the expansion of scope of practice for pharmacists.
- Build and publicly fund an additional 500 long term care beds across British Columbia by 2022.
- Invest $225 million to reduce surgical wait times for elective surgeries - with no impact on emergency surgeries.
Infrastructure
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Complete the construction of the George Massey replacement bridge.
- Invest in Phase 3 of the Cariboo Connector - four-lane highway between prince George and Cache Creek
- Invest in Alex Fraser Bridge capacity improvements
- Invest in interchange upgrades at Lower Lynn Creek
- Invest in four-laning of the Trans-Canada highway from Kamloops to the Alberta border
- Invest in Highway 97 widening in Kelowna
- Invest a minimum of $25 million over the next two years on upgrades to the Malahat and Pat Bay Highways working with local governments to determine the areas of greatest importance.
- Complete interchange work at Admirals Road / McKenzie Avenue in Greater Victoria, ongoing upgrades to the belleville Ferry Terminal, the North Courtenay Connector, and the West SHore Parkway Extension
- Contribute $500,000 to fund a study to improve access to all airports north of the Malahat.
- Contribute half of the $27 million upgrade to Highway 4 near Kennedy Lake providing better access to Ucluelet, Tofino and Pacific Rim National Park.
- Continue the $24 million BC Air Access Program funding for airports across BC, including more than $1.3 million this year for projects at Campbell River, Port Alberni and Comox Valley
- Invest in the Meadowood connector business case pre-feasibility study.
- Continue to assist in establishing passenger only service between Nanaimo and Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver.
Innovation and BC Tech
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Reinvigorate the Robson Square district as a centre of innovation.
- Engage former City of Vancouver Head Planner Larry Beasley to lead a consultation process, working closely with the City of Vancouver and stakeholders, including the neighbouring judiciary and Vancouver Art Gallery, to ensure the legacy of the site is appropriately honoured as it is revitalized into the innovative site envisioned.
- Help create jobs and drive new growth with $87 million towards the BC Tech Strategy.
- Ensure B.C. tech business are first in line for government contracts
- Create a Procurement Concierge Service to act as a "matchmaker" between government's needs and tech innovators of all sizes
Jobs and the Economy
Creating jobs and economic growth with the best trained workforce:
- Creating 1,000 new grads in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math disciplines, on top of the 1,000 coming
- Investing $87 million in the BC Tech Strategy
- Coding in classrooms for Grades 6 to 9
- New innovation hub at Robson Square
Maintaining the most diversified economy in Canada:
- Ensuring B.C. tech business are first in line for government contracts
- Standing up for B.C. on softwood issue
- Goal of three LNG plants moving to construction by 2020
- Responsible development of the Montney oil and gas reserves
- Supporting a new hops industry in B.C.
- Expand Buy Local and Grow Local to encourage local food production
- Diversifying markets for wood products in China and India
- Adding to the Rural Dividend and high-speed connectivity
Justice and Policing
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Continue to implement the Guns & Gangs Strategy to address public safety, keep our communities safe, and keep illegal firearms out of the hands of criminals.
- Make an additional $4 million investment in our Guns & Gangs Strategy in rural British Columbia.
Mental Health
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Invest $165 million for youth mental health needs and substance abuse issues.
Oil and Gas Industry
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Unlock the oil resources contained in the Montney Basin through a new oil, deep-well royalty credit that is competitive with Alberta.
- Place 50% of all oil revenues produced from the Montney Basin in the Prosperity Fund to benefit future generations.
Post-Secondary Education
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Create a one stop shop for student applications with a single point of entry for applicants to B.C. post-secondary institutions.
- Create an additional 1,000 new grads in STEM disciplines in universities and colleges across the province by 2022. Once those 1,000 additional graduates have completed their fourth year, we will expand by another 1,000.
Ride-Sharing
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
Seniors
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Create a new Active Seniors Tax Credit to support and promote seniors leading active healthy lifestyles.
- Create a new Respite Tax Credit for people caring for seniors or family members with disabilities.
- Double the Home Renovation Tax Credit to $20,000 to make home improvements to accommodate seniors or family members with disabilities.
- Invest $225 million to reduce surgical wait times for elective surgeries - with no impact on emergency surgeries.
Trade
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Stand up for B.C. forestry communities, workers, and companies as Canada continues to negotiate a new Softwood Lumber Agreement with the United States.
- Work with the federal government to support workers, communities and forest companies as they fight the impacts of the unfair countervailing and anti-dumping duties.
Transit
Driving forward, Today's BC Liberals will:
- Match the federal government investment with $333 million to BC Transit.
- Match the federal government's $2.2 billion investment in Metro Vancouver transit projects over 11 years.
- Negotiate with all three levels of government on project specifics, with the Surrey LRT Project and the Broadway Line our two top priorities.
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